PATRIOTS 2008 DRAFT: Mayo says all the right things

NEW YORK — Bill Belichick prefers his linebackers with seasoning, but this Mayo will do just fine.

DAVID BROWN

NEW YORK — Bill Belichick prefers his linebackers with seasoning, but this Mayo will do just fine.

The Patriots head coach had never taken a linebacker before the fifth round in the NFL Draft, instead plucking proven vets from the free-agent pool. But on Saturday he canned that 8-year-old tradition when he found a pre-packaged treat — Tennessee linebacker Jerod Mayo — with the 10th overall pick.

It seems weird moving a youngster into the Backerhood — practically a retirement community with current residents Adalius Thomas (30), Mike Vrabel (32) Tedy Bruschi (34) and Junior Seau (39). But in Mayo, Belichick has found another guy he can watch movies with.

"Oh, I love watching film," Mayo said Saturday. "I'm always trying to get a competitive edge whether it's in the film room or in the weight room, anywhere. I'm always trying to become a better football player. That's just me."

See where this is going? It only took Mayo 3½ years to secure a degree from Tennessee, where he majored in what can only be described as Saying The Right Thing.

This is a guy who says stuff like: "Wherever coach wants me to play, I'm willing to play."

And he probably means it.

When Mayo was a high school senior, his team got off to a 1-2 start, and he told the coaches to move him to running back. With Division I schools recruiting their best player at linebacker, the Kecoughtan High coaches in Hampton, Va., didn't want Mayo to risk injury.

But the player insisted. He rushed for more than 1,300 yards, played both sides of the ball and the team went 6-1 in its next seven games. You get the feeling that Mayo might be a made-to-order Patriot? He did too.

"I had 11 visits during this whole process and there wasn't an atmosphere that you felt the winning tradition like you did when you walked into the building with the Patriots," Mayo said. "The coaches and I sat down and talked football for a long time. Like I said, I just had a great visit and I felt like we clicked."

The only character flaw on his record: Being confused with a bad character. Mayo was erroneously charged with aggravated assault in connection with a fight at a Tennessee frat party in 2005, when he was misidentified to police. The charges were dropped when somebody else copped to the crime.

His statement at the time: "I did not hit anybody, and I have no reason for being charged in this incident. My name and reputation are very important to me, and I would not do anything to embarrass myself, UT or my teammates. I look forward to getting to the bottom of this."

Then he got to the bottom of it.

"There was a fight at a party, and I was charged with aggravated assault," Mayo told the Bergen County Record of New Jersey earlier this week. "I turned myself in as soon as I found out I had a warrant out for my arrest. After I turned myself in, the guy who actually committed the act, he came forward and said he did it."

Three years later, Mayo is doing yard work — say what? — when he gets a life-changing phone call from a Hall of Fame coach.

"I was in the backyard picking up leaves," Mayo said of his Draft Day experience "I know this time of the year, you don't expect to see leaves, but we have leaves in our backyard. I was picking up leaves with my mom and I couldn't do it any more after one bag. I was sitting on the porch, just sitting there thinking and Coach Belichick called me. I was very excited."

It was a call that Belichick has never made to a linebacker so early in the draft, a distinction that resonated with Mayo.

"It makes me feel great," he said. "He's a great coach, a Hall of Fame coach. Just to have a compliment like that come from a guy like that, it's just means the world to me and I can't wait to get up there in New England and just learn from him, study the game with him and become a great player."